Depending on the number of entries being processed, REPRO MERGECAT can require a lot of time to complete execution. If the REPRO MERGECAT job fails, for example, if the system goes down during execution, first determine what caused the job to fail.

As REPRO MERGECAT processes a catalog, it transfers entries from one catalog to another, deleting the entries from the source catalog. Thus, if REPRO MERGECAT has not completed, the target catalog contains the only valid entries for some of your data sets. For that reason, do not delete the target catalog simply because REPRO MERGECAT failed.

If the failure was caused by errors external to catalog management and access method services, simply rerun the REPRO MERGECAT job.

If the REPRO MERGECAT job cannot complete, use REPRO MERGECAT to return the entries from the target catalog that were moved there from the source catalog. This should return you to your starting point. Use the access method services DIAGNOSE command to help determine the catalog errors that must be corrected. Also, use EXAMINE to check the internal structure of the catalog.

Entries moved by REPRO MERGECAT are now cataloged in the new catalog, and they cannot be referenced from the old catalog. You should not use REPRO MERGECAT to make a backup copy of a catalog, or to create new catalog for another system. Using REPRO MERGECAT will make it impossible to refer to the data sets from the original catalog.

To help avoid REPRO MERGECAT failures, you should always use EXAMINE and DIAGNOSE before using REPRO MERGECAT, and fix any indicated errors. If REPRO MERGECAT cannot process a record because of an error in the record, it normally bypasses the record and issues a message. After using REPRO MERGECAT, carefully inspect all messages to determine if any entries were skipped. Then use DIAGNOSE on any skipped entries to determine the errors and the appropriate recovery procedures.